mudcatwilly

2/0 is a good place to start, maybe bump it up to 3/0 for a bigger worm. Why not get both?

I love worm fishing almost as much as jig fishing. For the worm, texas rigged and sometimes rigged on a darter head. Number one worm choice is a 5-inch Senko, followed by a 6-inch Berkeley Gulp turtleback worm, followed by a roboworm with a curly tail. I will throw a worm anywhere at anytime and have caught fish on them at times when I shouldn't have.

For winter, the first bait I reach for is a jig. I think the Rodstrainer jig is the best, but they are only available online where I live. My second favorite is the Revenge jig. Black/blue, black/brown, and black or brown with either orange or purple strands seem to be the colors of choice for winter. In cold water, a pork trailer performs better than a plastic trailer. I also like to use a single or twin tail grub as a trailer or sometimes, I take a brushhog and cut off the end and use that. Bounce it down steep banks and work it slow, letting it sit for a minute before twitching it. For some reason, bass hate it when a jig sits still. They will watch it sit and move closer and as soon as you move it again...bang. Use scent and dont forget to let it sit for awhile before moving it. Second bait choice: deep suspending ripbait (Luckycraft Staysee, River 2 Sea fetch minnow 88, Smithwick deep suspending rattlin' rogue). I like to work it on the down side of a steep ledge and use very long pauses between rips. The bait will get down 7 to 10 feet and the idea is that the staging or lethargic bass in 20 feet of water down the bank will come up to get the bait. They always hit it on the pause. You wont get many strikes, but when you do, it will be a quality fish. In deep water, another go to bait is the drop shot. Use small roboworms for this. A lot of guys like to use spoons in the winter and jig them off the bottom. This is not a technique that I am any good at, so I'll leave that to you to try.

Any spot marked "fish attractor" would get my attention. I would drop shot right on top of those spots. Second, I would work the steep banks with a 1/2 oz jig and twin grub trailer starting at a depth of about 20 feet. If that doesn't work, take a deep suspending ripbait (Luckycraft Staysee or Smithwick deep suspending rattlin' rogue) and work points and drop offs and use long pauses, trying to get the deep fish to come up to get it.

I hate dropshotting. It is a lot like bait fishing...boring.

Solo Launching: Tie rope to bow Get in truck with window down, rope in hand with a little slack Back into water When boat floats, drive truck forward, letting rope out, but don't let it go totally slack. Get out of truck and tie off to dock Park truck Fish Solo Trailering: Tie boat to dock Pull out about 2 or 3 feet of the nylon front hold down strap on the trailer (I do this right after I launch) Set the front trailer crank to pull in the strap, but leave the 2 to 3 feet of strap out Back trailer into water Drive boat onto trailer as far up as it will go and put it in nuetral Jump onto front of boat, grab the strap that you left hanging and clip it to the boat Crank up the strap from inside the boat to pull the boat fully onto the trailer Raise your prop and shut off motor Hop onto trailer and then into bed of truck and then onto the ramp Drive away

If it's prespawn, I like to look for shallow ledges with quick access to deep water. The bass like to stack up around those ledges, waiting for the water to warm up. I'd toss a jig and work it slowly from the ledge, down the face of the embankment. I also like to fish a suspending ripbait parallel to the break. It can draw the big bass from deep water up to the break.

Out west, we have lots of lakes with deep and clear or stained water. The baits of choice in winter seem to be swimbaits, suspending ripbaits, jig & pig, white spinnerbaits, and drop shotting plastics. Steady retrieve on the swimbait, long pauses on the ripbaits, very slow jig fishing, slow rolling white spinners, and the drop shot, just sit there and shake it. In the delta, where the water is murkier and shallower, guys seems to use reaction type baits more so than in the lakes.

I've been really serious about bass fishing for a little over a year now. Last spring, I really started gaining confidence because I really started catching fish and found a comfort zone. The last 4 or 5 times I've been out, I caught one fish. The last 3 times, I've been totally skunked. I read all kinds of articles, study maps, read fishing reports and throw the baits that the guys are catching 'em on in the places they say that the fish are being caught. Not even a bite. What the heck is going on? I'll never make the classic this way What do you guys do when you find yourself in a slump?

Thanks for the replies. I figured that Suzuki would have designed it the way it is for a good reason. I just was wondering about that, but you guys are wise enough to not let me destroy my motor, which runs great as it is. Point taken. Note to self....If I want more horsepower, get a bigger motor!

When you get in the weeds, START FISHING. Raise your big motor out of the water and pull up the trolling motor and pick the weeds out. When you're really stuck, make sure you have a paddle on the boat and paddle your butt out of there (AFTER YOU FISH THE SPOT)

Nitro makes a real nice boat. Brand new it will cost you $20k, but you can get a used one for $12k to $14k.

You want the bottomline fishin buddy. I had the 1101 and it worked great. Accurate depth contours and temparature readings. The fish locator worked ok. It would pick up bait balls, rock piles, stumps, etc. For $100, you can't beat it. Those other portable fish finders are garbage.

I used the fishin buddy 1101 on my canoe. It worked great for me. It's not great at locating fish, but you do get pretty accurate depth contours and temp readings. For $100 it's the best portable fish finder out there.

You're better off keeping the rpms as close to optimum as possible. If you over prop the motor, you could eventually tear up your lower unit. That was advice I got from my boat mechanic.

That's a real good unit for the money. My dad has one and it works great

Get a used boat on craigslist. I would get a stripped down 15 or 16 foot boat and then trick it out any way you want. You can get an old fiberglass trihull for that amount. They are good boats and have lots of potential to turn it into a fishing machine. Just make sure that the motor is in good shape.

I wear it when the water's rough and I'm high speed or whenever the water temp is below 60. I am a strong swimmer, but you never know. If you fall out and hit your head or God forbid, the spinning prop, it doesn't matter how well you can swim.

I have a 1990 Suzuki 85 hp 2 stroke. It has 3 carburators stacked one on top of the other and they are at the part of the motor closest to the stern and the openings face the stern. There is a black plastic cover that covers all of the carburator openings, I guess to protect them. I have a couple of questions about this. 1. With the motor cover on and that plastic covering over the carburators, how are they able to suck in enough air? 2. What would happen if I drilled a 3-inch diameter hole in the motor cover in front of each carburator and also in the plastic covering and then put air filters over the holes so no debris could get into the carbs? This would allow more air to be sucked into the carburators right? Maybe it's a dumb idea, but if the carbs were able to get more air, shouldn't that increase my horsepower. Just a wild theory, but I wanted to know what you guys thought about that.

I caught a 2-inch LMB on a cast master. I tried to throw it back before anyone saw me

I was nicknamed willy in high school on my baseball team. I later joined a semi-pro baseball team called the Solano Mudcats. Hence, "Mudcatwilly" was born

When fishing, I must wear my Adidas navy blue hat with my black T-shirt of the Solano Steelheads (an independent local baseball team). While wearing that getup, I caught two 20 pound stripers on consecutive casts. Any other attire is unacceptable.

Throw a heavy jig in there and use braided line. You'll get bit, but you'll have to fight to get the fish out of that stuff.

Sometimes when I fish, I'll reel in someone else's snagged lure. Sometimes I lose mine. I think it all evens out in the end.

I'll do whatever it takes to get a lure back. First, I'll move my boat around the snag to try and free it up. Second, I'll put my arm in the water as far as I can to try and reach it. During the summer, I've been known to dive in after it.